I’m quite sure you all know what outsourcing is. What you probably don’t know is that there’s an online revolution going on out there, which is deeply changing the way outsourcing works: thanks to the Internet, to the way it helps people interacting with each other regardless of where they are in the world and – of course – thanks to the so-called social media collaboration tools, millions of professionals around the globe are working on projects, are solving problems, are earning money even if they will never leave their houses and meet or have a coffe with their co-workers and employers.
There’s a new way of doing business together in progress and Freelancer.com is definitely a huge part of it. The web site founded by Matt Barrie today sports more than two millions of members, and claims to be “the world’s largest outsourcing and crowdsourcing marketplace for small business”.
I met him in person sometimes ago in Paris during Leweb ’10 and asked him some questions on the impact of outsourcing and crowdsourcing on local job markets and economy, about the community he built, the way it works and – above all – about the way Freelancer.com let people checking every member’s reputation, trustworthiness and reliability as well as managing their own.
You can listen his answers in the following podcast.
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The Web Observer 
Interesting.
However, I’d like Matt to address all the people who say Freelancer.com engages in fraudulent and illegitimate activities.
They have next to worthless customer service but beyond that, have a well documented scam whereby they suspend members accounts, continually ask for a photo id and scanned photo and then never give the members access to their funds. The customer service, if the photo sent is not “appropriate” just keeps sending the same request for a photo (copied email).
It is well documented and ongoing.
I’d like him to address these allegations. I’ve filed my own complaint to the RCMP in Canada and will pursue other means.
David Deubelbeiss
David
This is not true whatsoever.
Accounts only get suspended for ID checks when users break our terms and conditions and funds are always returned to their owners.
If you have a specific problem please contact our support desk and they would be more than happy to resolve your specific problem.
Regards
Matt
Note: this and other comment from the same author (all telling the same story and posted in a few second) have been deleted as SPAM. For the same reason comments to this post are now closed.
This blog is open to everyone’s comments, as far as they are part of a conversation. And “rapid fire” of prepacked attacks definitely isn’t the case.